The Arcadian Code
by rwby1989
Summary: A famous historian was found murdered, a virus plagues the Schnee Corporation, and chatter of an ancient order coming back from the bloodiest depths of history rang through the crime network. Amidst of it all, a young man finds himself in the center of a conspiracy that involves research his mentor left behind about an old kingdom. But can he stay alive to solve the mystery?
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:**

The works of Rooster-Teeth and their characters are their own and that of the mighty Oum. The only thing I own are the one-shot ideas that popped into my head and whatever OCs I would create for them. This is a work of pure fiction made solely for fun, constructive reviews will be welcomed, flames will be ignored. Any references to characters in real-life or fiction are purely coincidental. If I could make money out of my ideas, it would be nice...

Oum Damn It!

* * *

 **Date Published:** 29th Nov 2018

 **Chapter Title:** Prologue

 **Genre:** Dan Brown AU, No Grimm

* * *

 **Part 1**

 **(Vale Museum of History, 2300 hours)**

Renowned historian and linguist Bartholomew Oobleck panted heavily as he staggered his way through the museum, one bloodied hand to steady himself with the walls and railings, the other to curb the spilling of blood as it dripped on the ground, each drop signifying his reducing life essence.

' _T_ _ _here is not much time for me.'__

 _T_ he green-haired man winced in agony as he paused to catch his breath, risking a quick glance at his wounds that was agonizing him. On the one hand it was wearisome, each alternate step shooting pain into his body and threatening to take him down and let the reaper take him away. On the other hand it helped to distract him, making him alert enough to accomplish what needed to be done.

 _ _'They wanted to get the information from me, that's why they have avoided most if not any of the vital organs. I cannot let them have the secret.'__

The man started to move to the desired point, his determination renewed and his mind set on the purpose at hand. He managed to get to the art gallery when he heard the dreaded sounds: the pounding of feet and raised voices that was getting closer.

"Darn it!" With a quiet apology to the curator of the museum and the sculptor, Oobleck pushed a statue off its podium, setting off the alarms as the statue toppled and broke into many pieces. The security gates came crashing down, cutting off his escape routes but more importantly barricading the entrance to the suite thus keeping the men after him.

 _ _'This will only give me a few minutes at best.'__

The man made his way to one of the museum's most priced pieces of artwork at the farthest end of the room, his strength finally giving up and making him fall to the ground with a loud thump. He groaned in pain as he dragged himself wearily to the wall, using one arm to push himself up and steady himself against it, using his vantage point to look at the security gate where he could see through his broken spectacles some of the men after him. Each one of them wore dark robes and white-masks that covered only the top part of their faces, giving them a somewhat animistic feel to them. Each one wielded guns and knives, but they could not do anything against the Dust-laced security gates.

Suddenly the group split to the sides, leaving room for the young woman at the back to make her way to the front, stopping just outside of the gate to glare at him through the glass. Under the dim lighting, he could make out the main assailant who had been torturing him for information. Her tanned skin made it almost impossible to see in the lighting if not for her emerald-colored hair that was cut with a straight fringe and bangs with two locks on each side that extended to her hips. Her attire was one that accentuated her natural beauty and hourglass figure while being functional in the form of an intricate white top and an olive crop top that would bring focus to her abundant chest and revealing her lightly toned abdomen along with her thin waist, white pants that hugged her shapely legs and hips with brown chaps that ended at her calves. An overly long belt that was wrapped around her hips twice held her two pistols and a single pouch, and a pair of high-heeled pumps completed the look.

Overall she was a very beautiful woman that could pass as one of Oobleck's graduates if not for the fact she had aided in capturing and torturing him in the first place. At least he got back at her and a few of the men as their clothes bore signs of burns and a few cuts resulting from the little distraction he made with the Bunsen burner and chemicals in another part of the museum.

"Nowhere to run, Professor Oobleck." The young woman called out in a singalong tone.

"It is Doctor..." The man replied back while spitting out blood. "Doctor Oobleck."

"You know you are wasting your efforts and your life trying to escape from us." The woman ignored his reply and continued to talk while placing a hand on her rather generous hips. "All we want is the information and location of the item. It did not have to end this way."

"You really don't get it, dear Emerald." Oobleck gave a defiant glare at her, knowing her name from one of the men who had called out to her earlier. "You have wasted your time and effort to get to me, but as I have mentioned, I don't know what you want."

"You are a silly man, you know that? We know you have uncovered the location of the lost kingdom and more importantly, the tomb of the late king." The woman called Emerald replied back. "Your documents is being decoded as we speak, but you do have the silly habit of retaining vital information only until the actual reveal, and that I'm afraid is something my boss does not like."

"Well she needs to have patience, if she wanted to see the great reveal." He taunted as he gasped loudly, the pain shooting through his body being more profound now that he had stopped moving.

"Perhaps, or you could tell us and save us the trouble." The emerald-haired woman took out her scroll and tapped a few buttons before directing the screen at him, revealing a photo of himself with a smiling woman in a dress wrapped around his arms. "Otherwise we could just have a chat with your wife. I believe she can be very cooperative once we get to know each other." For a moment there was a deep silence, then it got broken by the man who laughed softly while coughing out blood.

"I will admit, that was a good trick, you almost have me there. Just one problem." Oobleck smiled with blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. "She's already elsewhere. I knew this expedition was going to cause trouble so I sent her away. She and I have very different tastes for history. And here's the thing, she is way better at hiding her tracks than me. Good luck finding her."

"Oh, are you sure?" The woman raised an eyebrow while lightly shaking the scroll. "We could have gotten to her while having our little session~"

"Oh I am sure. If you want something to give your boss from me, here's one." Oobleck raised a hand and flipped a bloody bird while letting his mouth run loose for once. "You can go and fuck yourself."

"Tch! Fine if that is how you want to play it, you can rot in this area." Emerald glared at him before motioning the others to leave. She paused before looking back one last time. "I guess it does not matter whether you or your wife talked to us or not, you merely delayed the inevitable. We would just have to find another translator for your research." With that she left, leaving him alone in the empty museum, waiting for the Grim Reaper to come and claim him.

Except for one of the men who had stuck behind briefly to look at him, what little not covered by his face showing that he was uncomfortable with the situation. That man sighed before turning to Oobleck.

"You wife is safe, she was trying to get a rise out of you." The henchman shifted a foot before continuing. "This may not mean much, but I don't think your wife would be targeted at this point, so..."

Oobleck had to smile at the man's honest if not lame attempt to console the dying historian. "Thank you for your kind words." The henchman looked at him one last time and nodded before leaving the area. Oobleck coughed out more blood as he rested his head against the wall and closed his eyes while focusing on his breathing.

' _At least my love is safe, but it does not change the fact that the situation has become dire. I can't die yet, the secret must be passed on.'_

Those words were echoing in Oobleck's mind as he struggled to keep conscious, thinking of a way to relay the information, but even if it could be done, it would be useless to the group protecting the most guarded secret and it might be too late by then.

 _ _'We would just have to find another translator for your research.'__

His eyes went wide open as his assailant's last words echoed in his mind. That was it, the person ideal for the job would have to be one who could understand the ancient symbols of the lost kingdom, and someone who could bring the information to the protectors and more importantly, know the true meaning behind the lore that involved the disappearance of the kingdom.

But that in itself was a problem. First and foremost, there were not too many who could read the ancient Valean text, mostly on the basis that there was no reason to read up on the text, gunning more for ancient artifacts that would earn them cash. Those who could have varying success, him being the most prominent in his field. Based on their conversations and interrogations, he deduced that they had already gone after those people in their line of work, each of them likely trying to decipher his secrets in the hopes of uncovering a clue.

No, the person he needed for the task would have be fluent with the ancient language, understanding of the old ways and ingenious in his execution of decisions. And as much he cared for his fellow companions hidden in the shadows, the person he had in mind had to be one that won't be influenced so easily by his old group and finally, the last person the assailants would think to be capable of carrying the secrets.

And there was one in mind, one that he wished he did not need to bring into this private war.

Groaning in pain, he moved his bloody hands to get himself into position, before starting to piece together the items needed for his plan, his breath getting more rugged and his eyesight going dark. He gritted his teeth and pushed on, making sure that he conveyed what was needed to the authorities and more importantly, the person he had in question.

It was only a few minutes to get his objective done, but the effort he needed to exert in his state made his pain seemingly dragged on for hours. He managed to finish his idea when his body finally gave way, making him slide down the wall and hit the floor hard, leaving him heaving as his blood flowed out of his body and stained the marble flooring around him. With a feeble whimper, he moved his bloody finger and drew one last symbol, before taking his one last breath.

 _ _'Forgive me my dear boy, for having to force this on you.'__

 **Part 2**

 **(Atlas, Schnee Dust and Technology Enterprises, 1300 hours)**

Executives and assistants moved out of the way of the one person that was literally stomping her way to an office with a scowl that would make weaker men quake in their knees in fear. The person in question was a young woman in her late teens with unusually pale-white skin with pure white hair tied into a pony-tail. She wore a simple shirt and skirt of light blue and white, with a symbol of a snow flake on her back. Her face could be described as that of a porcelain doll, one that retained a youthfulness of her childhood and almost flawless if not for the one scar over her left eye, but that in itself helped to bring notice to her blue eyes that shone like gems and now had a fire in them.

This young lady was Weiss Schnee, heiress to the biggest Dust Company and Technology Giant of Atlas. And right now she was seriously contemplating mass murder.

One of the assistants squawked in terror as she stumbled onto the floor in her haste to get out of Weiss's path, dropping the documents she held all over the floor in the process. Weiss ignored her and continued making her way to the office where she was to be informed of a situation that was dire enough to have both her and Winter called up to the company. Normally she would be thrilled to meet her elder sister since she was hardly around the company these days, but the issue at hand was so severe that all joy was wiped out. She paused at the door to take a deep breath to recover her thoughts, then with a mental nod and a deep frown, she pushed open the doors to see the situation for herself.

And it was pandemonium.

Groups of people rushing from table to table with armfuls of papers, some of which drop to the ground and forgotten in their haste. Several men with messed up hair were yelling into their phones while a few tech support staff were hammering at their keyboards, the precarious stack of empty cardboard coffee cups and their bloodshot eyes being the indicators that they had stayed up all night dealing with the issue.

"Weiss!" The girl turned to find her older sister walk over with an expression of concern that was reduced at the sight of her. The woman came over and hugged her tightly. "Thank God you are safe."

"Winter." Weiss let herself a quick moment to smile back and hugged her sister warmly. "What is going on here? Has there been any improvement?"

"I am afraid to say that is not the case." The both of them broke their hug and turn to the administrative officer standing near them. The man took out his handkerchief and wiped the brow of his bald head. "The situation has actually worsened before you came, Madam Weiss."

"Great." Weiss sarcastically replied. "As if I getting attacked a couple of hours ago by those radicals was not bad enough, now we have this issue with the servers and machinery going nuts! The board is going mad with the loss of data and we have no idea whether we are losing anything!"

"If only it were that simple." The administrative officer gestured to follow him as they made their way to the front, Weiss occasionally getting pushed back by accident from the frantic assistants who were going back and forth between monitors to fix the issues like chickens losing their head. It only took a few seconds to get to the front where there was a door leading to the private room. They entered through it to reveal a room that was covered in huge plasma screens all over the walls. Weiss was watching the screens completely covered in streams of data as the guy made his way to the nearest monitor, their green coloring coupled with the movement making her a little queasy.

"So what is the issue?" Winter turned to the man who was consulting with one of the technicians.

"Since this morning, we have been tackling with a virus that has infected our entire system and has been wreaking havoc all over our equipment and security systems. The workers are trapped in the construction building and the reactors have been pushed to their limits." The administrator said while the technician beside him was hammering away at the keyboard. "We almost experienced a core meltdown from the overheating of the Fire Dust and it was lucky that one of the older staff members was around the area at the time to bypass the lock-down to shut the reactors off and to get them out of the building."

"What about the Dust deposits? Are they secured?" Weiss asked knowing about the company's most prized commodity.

"They are safe. It was sheer dumb luck we went to change the locks the other day and had to use the older models while awaiting the latest versions. The virus targets the security chips meant for checking the security cards, and the older locks don't carry the chip that is in most of our equipment so they are not affected." The administrator assured her.

"I see." Weiss turned to the monitor again to look at the code. "I am seeing a lot of weird symbols, what is it?"

"That is where things get really weird." The officer typed a few more buttons to show some screens with said symbols on what looked to be parchments and stone tablets. "Much of what you see originated from historical artifacts and relics regarding some old kingdom. What little we gathered suggest that the hacker who may have made this virus did so with the hieroglyphs and symbols, likely to prevent people from neutralizing the virus too quickly."

"I highly doubt it is that abstract. There should be more people working on the translation right?" Weiss asked sceptically.

"Yes and no." The administrator winced as though it was hard to admit the issue. "You see, the symbols you are seeing a sort of dead language that has not been used for the past few millenniums, so we went to search for historians who could read them. And that is where the bad news start."

"Go on." Winter nodded while Weiss rolled her eyes at the idea of more bad news.

"I believe this is where we come in." The women turned to find two men who were evidently hiding in the dark so that they could not be spotted despite wearing the bright grey uniforms that showed they were from the Atlas Security Task Force. The two were dressed so similar that one might mistaken them for twins. Weiss wanted to ask who they were when Winter held out an arm to stop her. She pointed a finger at the badge that was above the breast pocket of the man addressing them, showing the insignia of a spear piercing a crescent moon and a star, making Weiss widen her eyes in shock.

These were not your typical security officers, these men were from the Office of Secret Intelligence, a group of people specializing in espionage and security of the entire country in the shadows. They were arguably the most known black-ops group that was shrouded in secrecy and rumors. The only reason Weiss heard of them was because of a conversation she overheard by chance between her father and General Ironwood where her father hoped to get one under his staff to check for leaks of information and company secrets.

Why were these men here?

"Allow me to introduce myself, I am Agent Benson and this is my partner Agent Crowe. We are from OSI." The person introduced himself to them.

"Why are OSI agents involved with this?" Winter asked while narrowing her eyes. "Is this a terrorist attempt?"

"Not quite. You see we are investigating a few cases of our own that involved these historians and we got a flag when your officer called for them to deal with these symbols. Once we found out about it we came over to see the issue." Agent Benson explained while his partner took out a USB Drive for him to insert into a nearby computer. "In a way, your officer was right that he has bad news to give."

"Which is?" Weiss demanded with impatience.

"I think it is best if I showed you." The agent typed a few buttons before pausing. "I must warn you, this is going to be a bit gruesome." Before the two women could comment, he pressed another button to show several windows, each depicting different people with a disturbing pattern emerging.

Winter's eyes went wide while Weiss covered her mouth in horror. "Good Lord!"

"Yup." The man remarked while photos of different people appeared on the screen, each showing signs of what looked to be the most excruciating torture given to them before getting a bullet to the head. But it was not the mangled bodies, the amputations or even the torn out intestines that got the sisters' attentions.

It was their faces, the expressions of extreme terror permanently etched to their faces that got to them, as though they were dealing with a monster before their deaths.

"Who or what did this?" Winter murmured as she looked queasily at a photo that showed a young woman with her limbs twisted and her neck slashed viciously.

"We are not sure." The agent replied as he manipulated the controls. "But this has apparently happened a few times for the past couple of weeks, and it is always the same pattern. Historians who are fluent with the history and language of the old kingdom, each one successful to a certain degree and able to find relics in the most obscure places. And for whatever reasons, they all showed signs of torture and their research were taken away."

"Someone went through a lot of trouble to get it in order to write a virus with those symbols." Weiss commented while glancing away from one particularly gruesome photo.

"We believe it may be something else." Their administrative officer remarked as he pressed a button to remove all the windows displaying the photos, much to the two sisters' relief. "We think that whoever is doing this is trying to find something, they are just using the symbols as a means to write the virus so that it will take us longer to break it down, like we needed more of a challenge to deal with." The man grumbled the last part out fiercely. The two women looked at him and the other technician who merely gave a grimace. Seeing their glares and those of the agents, the technician opted to carry on the explanation.

"Whoever wrote this virus did it two ways. Firstly, that person made it a self-replicating worm that keeps on attacking the system no matter what." The technician started to talk with a symbol diagram of their situation. "Thankfully we can counter it by cutting off the source of its food, in this case data."

"Go on."

"The second method applied to the virus is the more complicated bit. Whoever wrote this is a genius, making it semi-autonomic in order to counter most methods of erasing it. Essentially it is learning to go against our best measures and somehow in the process, it is becoming a Biggleman's Safe."

"A what safe?" Weiss blinked at the unknown description.

"Biggleman's Safe." Winter replied with a hint of reluctant respect. "It is a hypothetical encryption scenario where someone builds an impenetrable safe that cannot be broken into and places the blueprints inside it to keep the secrets hidden. The idea is such that by encrypting oneself with the same algorithm it is made of, it becomes unbreakable."

"So the virus is making itself more immune?" Weiss tilted her head in frustration.

"That is putting it lightly." The administrative officer spoke after looking through the files. "Damn thing is learning faster than we can kill it, and those symbols are not helping."

"Aren't there any other people able to translate?" Winter asked. "How about the leading expert in these symbols? Surely he is available."

"Yeah, and there lies the other problem we are facing and the reason we ended up coming here." The agent typed a few more buttons before pausing again. "I should warn you again, this is going to be more disturbing than the rest." With that, he pressed one more button to reveal the picture.

This time Weiss did not bother to hold back and ran straight to the nearest trash bin to empty out her lunch, while Winter looked ready to follow suit. "What on earth happen to him?!"

"Meet the late Doctor Bartholomew Oobleck." The officer sounded ill himself as he displayed the photo of the person in laying in a pool of his own blood, but with his shirt open to reveal several stab wounds on his stomach, the biggest one being on the side where his kidney was situated while his eyes were glazed over. But that was not the reason that the two women were horrified of.

It was the crime scene itself that made their situation all the more terrifying.

Drawn around him and the wall above him in what looked to be in his own blood, several symbols and pictograms were made, some resembling the same ones used in the virus code. His body was placed within the center of a six-point star with each tip containing a different symbol and one was drawn on his open stomach, giving the overall scene a very satanic look.

"This was taken a few hours ago in a museum that he helped with procuring ancient artifacts and old text. The police received a disturbance alert there and went to check up on it." The officer started his report while minimizing the window for their benefit. "As you can imagine, it was a major shock to find him there. When they examined the body and the other parts of the museum, evidence suggests that he was tortured for information."

"And after that, whoever it was decided to kill him and desecrate his body like that?!" Weiss looked at the agent with disgusted disbelief and fury.

"That is the weird thing." The officer paused to take a breath before dropping the bomb. "The person who tortured Oobleck did not do that. Based on what we know, Doctor Oobleck did it to himself."

"What?" Weiss dropped her angry expression and looked ill again.

"When the police found him, he was behind the security gates that were designed to trap anyone who wants to steal any of the artwork or artefacts in the museum. The broken statue on the floor and security footage proved that he was the one who shut the gate, likely to stop his captors from getting to him." The officer handed a folder containing the details. "There is no way to override the gates without the curator's keys and the security codes. So in that case, it would make sense that he drew those symbols and laid himself in that manner."

That explanation prompted Weiss to go for another trip to the trash bin to empty her stomach of her breakfast, while Winter was gripping the folder with a shaking hand as she read the report. She had met the historian briefly during a gala at the museum and found it hard to believe that he would do that to himself.

"Why?"

"The police believe that it was meant to draw attention to the captors, but also to another person whom they should protect." The officer answered.

"Protect? Protect who?" Winter raised one eyebrow, to which the officer pressed another button to show some of Oobleck's work and one part of the crime scene that had initials written in blood.

"Doctor Oobleck is known to work with a partner for some of his more obscure and dangerous work. No one knows his identity but Oobleck has attributed a fair amount of his successes to the partner named Jumile." The man said while focusing on the initials 'JMLA'. "It is a pen-name for the partner, a common practice for people in the archaeology or history sectors who wished to remain anonymous but have their work published."

"What makes you think that this person needs protection?" Weiss asked from her side before bowing her head in preparation to vomit again.

"Some of our translators who have basic understanding of the symbols said that Oobleck kept drawing one symbol around the initials, its meaning is 'Protect' or 'Guard'." The officer replied. "Coupled with their partnership and the few statements from those who knew about them, it became clear to us that Oobleck believes that his partner might become the next target."

"I see, do we know him?" Winter asked as she lightly patted Weiss's back to ease her pain.

"We think we found the person." Agent Crowe spoke for the first time as he typed a few more words on the keyboard to reveal records and photos on the screen. "When we were investigating some of the chatter, we found phone calls and letters to one person, which when cross-referenced with his time-table and his digs, gives us a possibility of 96% that this is Oobleck's partner."

"Okay, do we have a picture?" Weiss wiped her mouth while one of the assistants held the used trash bin at arm's length and went away quickly.

"Yeah, here's what we know of this guy." The officer picked up another folder and handed it to them. "Honestly speaking, this is the last person I expected to be Oobleck's partner." Weiss raised her eyebrow while Winter opened the folder and started reading with Weiss getting closer to read the contents over her shoulder while thinking in her head. She may not have met the late Doctor, but she had respect for the contributions he made to the world of history, and of the few she did meet in other areas, she expected this partner of his to be a distinguished person in the ranks of his fellow historians and archaeologist.

Instead she found herself looking at a photo of a young man roughly her age with blond hair, blue eyes and a goofy smile that made him look a little silly. Puzzled at this, Weiss went to look for a name and stared for a moment before turning to the officer with a frown.

"Who the hell is this Jaune Arc?"

* * *

 **== Author Notes ==**

Hey there, so here is another idea from my melting pot series about to be made into a full story. This is a story that inspired from the Dan Brown series, primarily my favorite 'The Da Vinci Code'. I had searched the archive but cannot find one similar so I tried my hand, and now I am thinking of testing the waters to see if I can make this a full story.

For those who read the original concept, you may have noticed that I had changed some of the text to fit it in properly. For one I wanted to make sure the age group is correct since the old one referred to Weiss and Emerald as being 'girls', hardly appropriate based on the setting. Also the old one made it sound that the Schnee company had a lot of power, but that felt a little weird after I went back to the concept so I altered it that while the Schnee was still the one providing Dust and technology, I should follow the military aspect of Atlas and create a black-ops type group that supposedly answers to the government only.

Now how would our resident blond deal with the situation?

So please read-and-review and let me know how you feel about this, and hopefully you stick around for more chapters of this story.

And I put my pen down for now.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:**

The works of Rooster-Teeth and their characters are their own and that of the mighty Oum. The only thing I own are the one-shot ideas that popped into my head and whatever OCs I would create for them. This is a work of pure fiction made solely for fun, constructive reviews will be welcomed, flames will be ignored. Any references to characters in real-life or fiction are purely coincidental. If I could make money out of my ideas, it would be nice...

Oum Damn It!

* * *

 **Date Published:** 24th Dec 2018

 **Chapter Title:** Tidings to come

 **Genre:** Dan Brown AU, No Grimm

* * *

 **Part 1**

 **~~Scene 1~~**

 **(2 days later – Mistral, 5 miles off the coast of Kurasou Port, 1012 hours)**

"Steady now lads, steady..." The old sailor with a long brown beard and a thick cigar in his mouth called out to his crew as they raised the old sarcophagus from the ocean bed using the crane installed on their refurbished tugboat and were now preparing to lower it down on the flat bed for their guest to examine the item. "We are at the home stretch people so don't mess this up okay!"

"On it boss!" They called out to him as they pulled the cables secured to the artifact. Slowly but surely the sarcophagus was lowered gently onto the dry surface alongside other relics they managed to dredge up from the seabed. It has been quite the undertaking for the crew but they persevered knowing that a piece of history could be saved from the ravages of time and nature. Soon enough the sarcophagus joined the rest of the relics, leaving the old sailor to puff out smoke in satisfaction while the crew cheered loudly at a job done.

"All right lads, we got what we came for. Go take five, I will get our adventurer Jaune out to check these items." The old man told them.

"No need, I am already here." The old sailor and a few of the crew turned to find a blonde-haired young man walking towards them with excitement in his blue eyes. He was dressed simply in a white shirt and beige shorts that ended above his knees and wore sneakers that had seen better days, but the amount of youthful energy coming off him as he went to the sarcophagus was evident.

And he had every right to be excited. This particular excursion had been on the minds of Jaune's and Oobleck's for a year now, mostly because of the amount of research done and the amount of red-tape that needed to be done before they could set off on this journey. But they did not let it get to them so easily; the excursion involved the finding and excavation of a lost temple that used to be on an island that went under a few thousand years ago, and it was Oobleck's belief that this could hold a key to a missing piece of Mistral's history as well as a small portion of Vale's. About a week before the excursion, Oobleck brought Jaune to his private study and told him that he had another dig coming up so he was giving Jaune free reign on this, something that shocked Jaune to his bones. He had been on solo jobs before but this was the first time that he would be handling a big dig without his mentor. Oobleck waved his concerns away and told him that he would be waiting for the result.

With that endorsement, Jaune made sure to go all out and got Mr Collin's crew to help since they had used his services around Mistral in the past. The old sailor was tickled at the idea the young man was now flying solo for this job and helped out in whatever way he could. It took a little over three weeks but they had finally got it done.

"Ah! Here we go..." Jaune inspected the relic with a keen eye, occasionally removing a seaweed from it to get a view of the symbols still present on it. After a while he drew back with a nod and a smile. "Mister Collins, I am most pleased with you and your crew, you have done this a lot faster than I had anticipated."

"Well, when you have one of the best salvage teams around Mistral, you can bet that we will deliver the goods in record time." Collins smirked as the crew around them let out their agreement.

"Indeed, and for that you definitely earned your commissions and more, such as..." Jaune turned to face the crew with a big smile. "Once we get back back on land and get these on the truck, first round of drinks at Yuri's Bar is on me gents!" That earned him a resounding cheer and applause as the men got ready to return to port.

"Lad, hope you got a big wallet, cause we can drink quite a bit for the first round." The old sailor chuckled at Jaune.

"No worries there, I still have a fair bit from my last trip, and this latest haul is going to make up for it at least ten times over." Jaune waved it away.

"You are something Mister Arc. You and Doctor Oobleck sure know how to treat us guys for a job done." Collins remarked while slapping his back.

"Hey, you guys do a great job on our trips, it is only fair that we repay it in kind and more." Jaune shrugged while hiding his wince from the back pain. He turned to look at all the relics around him with a slightly hopeful expression. "You think he will like this haul?"

"Kid, I think you will make him a very happy man." Collins guffawed loudly while taking another breath of the smoke. Jaune smiled thinking of the professor who had done a lot for him and how he hoped to surprise him with this.

"Yeah, guess you are right on that."

 **~~Scene 2~~**

 **(3 hours later, Kurasou Inn)**

Jaune sighed as the hot water heated his body and relieved it of the aches and pains resulting from this long trip. It took a lot longer than expected to unload the relics and get them cataloged before moving them to the rented storage unit for cleaning, there was so much red tape involved to get them recognized as there were still some officials trying to get a bigger cut than stipulated, not helped since he was a relative 'newbie' in the area he would be the easier target. Thankfully Collins was there to settle matters via the old 'sailor-wrangling' method, aka grab the officials by the ankles and dangle them over the ship with the occasional baiting from his gleeful men to gather the fishes and rare sharks.

That man helped him save a lot of lien and time.

There was still some paperwork that needed to be done, not to mention a few more weeks of cleaning and proper restoration to be done for the relics before they made their way to the museum for the final checks and display, but all the work was now paying off and he could not wait to share the news with Oobleck. Collins and his crew already started the tab when he returned, and he could almost feel his wallet dying at the amount they were drinking. At least it was just the first round and Collins was keeping an eye on them since they still needed to be level-headed for the next day. Already a few had opted out of the heavy drinking, preferring to enjoy the comfort of the rooms.

The sounds of the wood floor creaking stopped his washing of the hair temporarily and made him looked to the door with narrow eyes. Despite appearances, both Oobleck and Jaune don't mind the simple necessities as being on the field meant such things would be a rarity, and with some locations having rather corrupt officials, it would be better to have some extra lien just in case. The inn was one such example where the accommodations may not be five star glamour, but with a dining room, a bathroom and a kitchen, it was more than enough for Jaune with an added bonus; the creaky floor boards act as a security measure for him in case some tried to enter his room without permission since only he would know where the weak boards were. It was always a hazard for Oobleck and Jaune when people wanted to steal their research or to take them hostage for whatever valuables they have found. One of the more extreme cases came about when they had unwittingly taken something from a tribe and they hunted the two down. It took a fair amount of talking to clear up the misunderstanding and to exchange the relic with something else.

Thank goodness for Oobleck's linguistic talents.

The sounds of the wood creaking getting closer prompted Jaune to wash off the soap and stop the water before creeping to the towel rack to grab both the towel and the gun he kept with him. He was not a good shot but a foot away and he can get a good hit in the chest if needed. After securing the towel around the waist, Jaune slowly turned the door knob and peered around the corner, then just as slowly and keeping to the planks that were secured properly. He stopped at the corner that lead to the dining room and grabbed the small mirror on the table to peer around it. From the reflection, he could see three individuals dressed in normal slacks and could pass for regular folk if not for the dark military boots and the weapons they have on hand.

This was going to be problematic, he had to time it right. Jaune took a deep breath to steady himself before creeping around the corner and getting behind the closest intruder. With a pause to check the other two, Jaune reached and managed to cover the mouth of his target before using the butt of his gun to hit the head to knock him out and dragged him away to hide him. With a quick check, Jaune snuck up to his second target to silence him as well. Unfortunately that one was turning to find the missing friend and spotted Jaune, yelling as he leveled his weapon at him.

Jaune cursed as he dived for cover behind the kitchen counter-top as the attackers opened fire on him, causing a few pots to hit the ground with bullet holes and a few broken pottery to follow suit. Jaune made his way around it and took a couple of shots at the offenders to distract them before rushing over and grabbing the closest intruder, twisting his hand to make him drop the weapon before placing an arm around his neck and used him as a shield.

"Put down that gun and I don't have to hurt your companion." Jaune shoved the gun in his hand at the intruder's temple while glaring at the other man.

"What makes you think he is my companion?" That man laughed as he turned to face Jaune, revealing the tattoo on his neck Jaune recognized to be the mark of the Branwen Bandits, one of, if not The, most notorious bandit groups around in Mistral. "Those two are just hired guns for me to find you." To illustrate that, that man raised his weapon and fired two rounds at Jaune's human shield, causing that man to cough out blood as he died slowly. Jaune could only let go and stared at the light leave that man's eyes.

"Now that the distraction is gone." The Branwen pointed the weapon at Jaune "Time to collect my pay. I would prefer that you come with me willingly, some clients of mine are waiting to meet you." Jaune was about to tell him where he could point that gun at when at the corner of his eye he spied Collins and 2 of his men sneaking up from behind. Collins motioned with his hand to get Jaune to continue distracting that intruder.

"Who are your clients, any one of them I know?" Jaune pointed the gun at the intruder hoping to get answers and distract the man. "Let me guess, the Nobunaga Clan, or the Tesla Family? Those guys never appreciated how Doctor Oobleck was able to beat them to the prize back in Vacuo. Wait~ Please don't tell me it is the Malfoy family, those assholes never shut up about that article we made about the supposed 'pure-blood' line they kept trying to bribe us to get their names in."

"Haha, no one that silly, and especially not one as pretentious as those Malfoys." The Branwen bandit spat that last bit with a look that spoke of past transactions with them. "No, my clients are a little different. They have been on the lookout for historians with certain skills and are offering good money for anyone bringing them in alive. This is my lucky day since I found you hiring that crew to hunt down that lost temple in the sea."

"Well lucky you then." Jaune smiled in a manner that got the intruder on alert. That did not help him when Collins and his crewmen took that moment to smack the gun out of his hand and body-piled on him to keep him there.

"Well that was a thing." Collins wiped his brow while his sailors tied the man up liked a trussed-up turkey. "Well at least who are not on the list that want you now."

"Yeah, though that bit about the historians is getting me worried." Jaune frowned as he emptied out the gun of its ammunition. "I have heard some rumors on the way here but I did not put that much stock in it. Maybe I should check in on Doctor Oobleck?" Collins was about to reply when they heard a couple of squeaks and turned to find two of the female staff members standing at the doorway with their backs facing them.

"Mi… Mister Arc, you have a phone call at the service desk!" The younger girl with her hair done in a bun stammered out her reply.

"Okay then I will be right down then." Jaune answered only to get an even bigger squeal from the two women when they took a peek at him and blushed heavily. What was wrong with them?

"Lad, that is fine and all, but before that..." Collins pointed to Jaune with a toothy smile. "You might want to put on some pants." That was when Jaune remembered that he had been wearing a towel earlier and at some point it came loose, thus exposing himself to the elements without meaning to.

Crud.

"I will go and get changed, then I will get the phone." Jaune bent to grab the towel that was on the floor and secured it around his waist again.

"Better get it done soon." Collins gave a smirk that made Jaune want to smack his head hard. Instead he grumbled and moved to his room to at least get some pants on. He was closing the door just as the voice of the older woman rang out with words that made Collins and the crewmen fall to the ground laughing their asses off.

"Now THAT is a katana!"

' _Son of a bit~!'_

 **Part 2**

 **(2 days after Oobleck's death, Outer Reaches of Vale)**

Drops of water resounded in the tunnels as Emerald made her way through them, the small lamps casting odd shadows on the walls and with the echoes in the tunnel, made everything seemed to come alive in the darkness. It also stunk of sewage, dust and something so foul that it made her dry-heaved a few times on the way.

Truth be told, Emerald would really not want to be entering their safe-house in this manner, but it seemed the police were a lot quicker than her crew had anticipated and put up road-blocks to check everyone, not helped when there was surveillance footage of Oobleck's attackers. Thankfully the top of her body and more importantly her face was hidden but she was still noticeable and she would rather not take any chances. The henchmen she had borrowed for the capture of Oobleck could blend in by removing their masks and switching out their clothing, she did not have that option early on. After she had reached the outskirts of the city, she hitch-hiked on a bus to the outer perimeter of the state before taking one of the pickup trucks meant for her escape. After a day's worth of driving and changing of disguises because of the border checks, she abandoned her vehicle and went to an old building that had old tunnels connecting all over the area, one of which was the one used to get to the docks where the safe-house was.

Oddly enough, that was not the main focus of her problems. They were able to get more information from Oobleck about the lost kingdom of Vale and the supposed location of its king than any of the previous historians combined. That was at least the proof they needed that he was the best in the field. But the man was stubborn to resist all of their interrogation methods and ended up denying them the final piece of the puzzle, and Emerald was afraid of how the news would affect her boss.

All too soon and much to her relief, she had arrived at the ladder that led to the outside world. She took a moment to check her equipment before grabbing the first rung and started climbing the ladder to where the hidden manhole cover was. Lifting it a tiny bit to peek through, she quickly lowered her head as the patrolman in the area was moving his flashlight in her direction, muttering a few curses that would be considered downright rude for children to hear. After a while the patrolman continued on, leaving her in the darkness. She waited one more minute before lifting the cover and leaving her hiding place, placing the cover back neatly to hide it properly. With a quick glance, she left the spot and made her way to a warehouse close by. She paused by the door and looked around once more before knocking it in a pattern. A sliding partition opened up to reveal one of the masked men looking at her briefly before closing. Sounds of bolts being moved soon followed and the door was opened for Emerald to make her way inside.

Time to face the music.

Emerald walked around the stacks of crates meant to give the illusion of the placed being used for storage and to hide the light from being seen outside of the windows, the sounds of people talking and moving equipment getting louder as she got closer. Around the last corner, Emerald found a few of the men sent to help her earlier now back in the warehouse and dressed in street clothes for them to leave without getting recognized. In one corner, a group of them were moving crates containing the weapons to be used soon. In another corner, a truck was getting loaded with some of the equipment as part of evacuation orders.

"Is Cinder around?" Emerald asked the closest masked man who was picking up his rifle.

"She is at the office going through some of the documents." The faunus replied. She nodded and made her way to the staircase leading to the office where her boss was. She took a little longer than needed to climb the stairs to get her story straight in her head, then with another quick breath and check, she opened the door and let herself in.

"Welcome back, Emerald." The soft and sultry voice drew her attention to the far end of the room where her boss was viewing a pin-board covered in diagrams and documents. Her boss turned to reveal a woman of a dark and lustful beauty, with her raven-black locks of hair cascading to her shoulders and covering one of her amber-gold eyes that seemed to gleam in the light, pale skin that helped to accentuate it and her hair, and an hourglass figure with all the right curves shown off by a tight-hugging dark-red, off-the-shoulders V-neck mini-dress with her long legs on full display.

"So my dear Emerald, what news you bring to me?" Cinder walked to her slowly with her arms crossed under her chest and a notable swaying of her hips. Emerald gulped lightly from the display and the expected behavior Cinder might have upon hearing her news.

"We were able to obtain a fair amount of Oobleck's research, it is at least double than all the other historian's combined. Some of it is confirmation of what we have gathered from the others and a lot more that we did not anticipate." Emerald started to report what she had found. "It is clear that Oobleck has unearthed a whole lot more than what the legends had spoken off, and there are trials to them. Traps more likely to deter all but those who followed the old king and the group opposing us"

"Oh?" Cinder sat herself on the desk nearest to her and crossed her legs while tilting her head and giving an alluring smile. "Tell me more~" Emerald shifted slightly from the sultry tone Cinder was making and thankful for her tanned complexion to hide the blush on her cheeks.

"Oobleck has theorized that there are a few trials to get to the prize, each one designed to test the person in different manners." Emerald started talking while taking out a scroll to connect to the projector and displayed the photos taken. "The first trial is something that we thought was just a way of stopping others from following. In actual fact, it is one trial that forces those who wish to join the order to take the other trials with a series of markers as their guides."

"The second trial starts at the second marker, it is called 'The Path of Penitence'." Emerald switched to a picture that showed a drawing of an old mural displaying a man kneeling on the ground before a ball of light, "based on Oobleck's translations, 'Those who walked forth pridefully before the breath of god will suffer his swift wrath. Only the penitent man shall be allowed to pass.' I have no idea what that means."

"Intriguing." Cinder hummed as she looked at the images.

"Third trial called 'The Tower' starts at the next marker. While the other historians speak of this as the coming of doom, Oobleck is of the belief that it may be a literal tower that is supposed to keep something that leads to the fourth marker." The next image showing a sketch of a stone tower with indications and quick scribbles around it was shown, followed shortly of photos of certain areas that showed either symbols similar to it or constructions.

"The fourth trial is something of an oddity. From what Oobleck was looking into, he has a fair number of doubts about it."

"How so?" Cinder tapped a finger to her chin as she looked on in interest.

"The name is 'The Tears of God'. The description of the trial is not clear because the symbols used can be given double or even triple meanings based on its placement in a sentence." Emerald answered as she switched to a picture depicting a face mural of a woman with tears running down her face with a small figure underneath that in a manner that the figure was getting drenched under.

"My my, the good doctor is certainly thorough with his research. It is a good thing that we held off on getting him first since he would likely have more time to decipher the text." Cinder spoke in genuine admiration for the doctor's intellect.

"The exact details stopped around the fifth marker." Emerald looked guilty at this point. "He was able to write out his theories on it and possibly the details of the sixth marker, but his notes ended there. What I can say is that he has kept more notes on it elsewhere so we may need to check his house."

"What theories did he have on the fifth?" Cinder waved her hand to her.

"From what I gathered from the information we had obtained, there is the possibility that there are 2 trials for that marker. One is called 'The Word of the Gods' and the next is 'The Veil of Desires'. The first describes how one who walks in the footsteps of the Gods shall proceed on. The second is something that Oobleck was uncertain but he had given his theories that those who can overcome their desires shall be welcomed into the arms of the order." Emerald answered. "He also added a note that gong forward would see more trials at each marker, he did not state the number of markers or trials in the end."

"I see, well at least we actually have confirmation on these." Cinder then turned to her with a steady gaze. "What of the final prize?" Emerald's heart sunk at this point.

"I am sorry to report that Oobleck had resisted all of our interrogation methods and he died before telling us about the location of the lost kingdom and the tomb of the last king." Emerald gulped as she looked to Cinder, feeling chills down her spine as she watched Cinder's eyes seemingly glowed in the dark and her lips thinned in displeasure. "Furthermore, I could not get the starting point for which the trials would begin. For all we know, it could be in Vacuo or Atlas as opposed to Vale or Mistral."

"..."

The silence was almost oppressive as Cinder looked at Emerald with a steady gaze that made the tanned woman want to get down on her knees and beg for mercy. Then with a sigh, Cinder closed her eyes and the silence grew less daunting.

"Well it was to be expected. I had hoped for the best but knowing the good doctor's behavior he would never give it up willingly." Cinder remarked before opening her eyes to look at Emerald. "Good work Emerald, at least we now have confirmations about possible traps and that much of the work is done without us having to toll through all that paperwork." Cinder pointed her thumb over her shoulder at the desk and pin-board with documents all over them.

"Thank you, Cinder." Emerald bowed her head in gratitude, relieved she was not going to be punished.

"At least you are efficient and punctual with your work. In fact you are a lot earlier getting back than Mercury. Honestly, all he has to do is upload a virus into the SDC servers. How long does it take to do that and get back?" Cinder grumbled at their missing companion with displeasure evident much to Emerald's hidden glee.

"He is likely taking the scenic route." Emerald shrugged before adopting a serious expression. "Cinder, I have to ask. Without Oobleck, whom do we turn to next? He was the leading expert in these field of work. Not to mention that all the others before him were lackluster, anyone else in the future would not be as good as him."

"Have no fear, I have anticipated this." Cinder smiled in a manner that would give chills to those unlucky to be in her path. "My spies are keeping an eye on possible targets to go next. One in Vale had alerted me that Oobleck has sent a warning of sorts to protect his partner known to aid him on some of his excursions."

"Do we know his name?" Emerald asked only to get a shake from Cinder.

"He is using a pen-name and he is not very well-known with his real name, whatever that is." Cinder replied as she stretched her arms over her head. "What I can say is that my contacts have informed me that both Vale and Atlas have sent delegates and some men to find this person to bring him in, though which one is the question since Atlas wants to get him to translate the virus to get rid of it while Vale wants him to solve the murder. My money would be on Vale since they are closer and if the partnership is real, Ooblekc's widow would be the key to it."

"Will it be an issue for us?" Emerald asked. "We went through the trouble to create the virus so that we can get the information from their servers while infecting the other networks."

"You need not worry. Our hack team has already obtained the ones we desired and are now taking every other information we can get." Cinder smirked widely. "For a technological giant, SDC has quite a few holes in their security system that makes it so laughable and almost pathetic in retrospect."

"Seriously?"

"Yup." Cinder nodded with amusement from Emerald's disbelief. "In any case, we already gotten what we needed from the SDC and then some. We are just getting more information that might prove useful in the future." She took a glance at the watch on her wrist. "For now get some rest. We will need to go through some of the documents tomorrow and Oobleck has quite a fair number." Emerald nodded and made her way out, leaving Cinder alone in the room. She turned to look at one photo depicting the mural of the lost kingdom and a second that depicted a broken heart.

The same symbol as the one on her back.

"Very soon, I just need to be more patient." Cinder mused as she tapped her chin. "Soon we will get back what was stolen."

* * *

 **== Author Notes ==**

Hey there, so here is the second chapter for this story idea. I am still fiddling with this a little to see how it gets received. So far it is limited but good, I will be changing the rating to get more viewers since the theme may not be as bad as I originally thought. It will probably be back to M-Rating in the future though, after all this is inspired by Dan Brown. I think a few of you can get the shout-outs from some parts. XD

I have decided to hang on to the faunus theme so that there is a reason for White Fang to be there. But I am still leery about having Semblances into the story, do you guys think I should have them in here?

So please read-and-review and let me know how you feel about this, and hopefully you stick around for more chapters of this story.

And I put my pen down for now.

Merry Christmas to you all!


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